MLB: The “unwritten rules” need complete rewrite

MLB needs to make sure that the unwritten rules of the game get a complete overhaul.

One of the “unwritten rules” of baseball was supposedly broken of August 18 when the current MLB home run leader – San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. – hit a 3-0 pitch for a grand slam in the eighth inning of a 14-4 rout over the Texas Rangers.

Baseball law is to “always respect the game.” But while statistics are such an important part of baseball, especially during contract negotiations, Tatis Jr. added a home run and four RBI to an already impressive 2020 season stats line.

According to reports from The Dallas Morning News, Rangers manager Chris Woodward said of the play that “There’s a lot of unwritten rules that are constantly being challenged in today’s game. I didn’t like it personally. You’re up by seven in the eighth inning, it’s typically not a good time to swing 3-0. It’s kind of the way we were all raised in the game. But … the norms are being challenged.”

In the postgame interview, Tatis Jr. said, “I know a lot of unwritten rules. I was kind of lost on this … Those experiences, you have to learn. Probably next time, I’ll take a pitch.”

Norm “being challenged in today’s game?” Next time, “I’ll take a pitch?” This is baseball, a sport designed to entertain. Somehow, I don’t think a nine-year-old sitting in front of the TV wearing his well-worn Padres cap and watching his favorite player hit a grand slam would care about “unwritten rules.”

And unwritten rules are hardly new to the game. Did Ty Cobb break an unwritten rule when he purportedly would sharpen his cleats to spike an opponent when he slid into a base? Did Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale break unwritten rules when they would pitch inside to a batter crowding “their” plate?

Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly received an eight-game suspension (reduced to five) when he threw at Houston batters on July 28 in an alleged display of retribution for the 2017 Astros cheating their way to a World Series title. He never hit a batter, but he supposedly violated an unwritten rule and was suspended by the league.

Teams are applying an infield shift in record numbers. Lefthanded power hitter Matt Olson of the Oakland A’s has bunted to toward the vacated left side of the infield for base hits multiple times this year. Is he breaking an unwritten rule? If the pitcher had a no-hitter past the sixth inning and Olson bunted, he would be.

In-game celebrating is a no-no. Displays of excitement after a big hit, a bat flip after a mammoth home run, or a pitcher being demonstrative after a big strikeout pitch are strictly taboo. Why? A celebration is harmless. A 95-mph thrown at a batter’s head is not.

MLB should find the anonymous author of the book on “unwritten rules” and demand an updated version. Call it “Unwritten Rules 2.2020.”